# How and why am I spamming myself?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480 "2006-06-05T14:13:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/1 "2006-06-05T14:13:31Z")

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I just got a bizarre email in my gmail account. It says it’s from ‘me’ - I have my own email in my address book that way for convienance - but I certainly didn’t send it. The subject line is “1545453” sans quotes. The only body text is “969” (again, no quotes).

So: what in the world is going on? Of course the first thing I did was change my account password, but the curiosity remains. I have no idea how to make sense of the header, which means I’m not going to post it here because I don’t know if there’s Secret Private Stuff in that mess. Can someone give me a clue?

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/2 "2006-06-05T14:42:11Z")

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Your account hasn’t been hacked. The e-mail standard is inherently insecure and allows spoofing. This means that the e-mail has a system address that tells it where it needs to go but it also has human readable To: and From: elements. These can be spoofed to anything very easily. In the early days of the web, there used to be sites that would allow you to type in e-mail messages from anyone. I had some (sick) fun sending e-mails from bosses to employees, schools, to students etc. You can still do that and spammers decide to do it for whatever reason sometimes. It doesn’t mean much. The technique to do that is easy and impersonal.

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/3 "2006-06-06T19:33:31Z")

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I used to get emails that attempted to be excerpts from potboiler novels, or so they seemed. The sentences were more or less grammatical, but overall they were incoherent.

Things like:

“Donovan gave the galvinized soup a review, while the high-wire train wanted more than new batteries. Sheila’s call pushed the ratchet, and she waited for the extra tax…”

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**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/4 "2006-06-06T19:40:43Z")

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Did you see _Fight Club_? It’s either that, or what **Shagnasty** said.

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/5 "2006-06-06T20:08:30Z")

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Do you take Ambien? Maybe you’re doing it in your sleep. 😃

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**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/6 "2006-06-06T20:10:33Z")

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The aliens are using our own infrastructure to plan the invasion. Sheesh. Has nobody seen Independence Day?

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**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/7 "2006-06-06T21:15:07Z")

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Strangely enough, i received a very similar email today. With a subject line of “455” and a body of “969”. It was rather bizarre. I was confused why someone would do such a thing, but then i thought maybe it was a newbie spammer trying out his list.

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**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/8 "2006-06-06T21:48:53Z")

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I got one “455” “969” yesterday, too.

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**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/9 "2006-06-07T02:50:58Z")

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One thing nobody’s mentioned: a number of trojans use infected systems to send spam, spoofing the return address using random e-mails from the infected system’s address book. So, there’s a significant possibility that this means a computer belonging to someone you know is compromised. A successful trace of the actual sender might help you help a friend clear their system … But that would be hard, unlikely to be successful, and anyway, it’s not _your_ system that’s infected. 😉 If you have a good idea who all likely has your e-mail in their address books, you might find it in your heart to send out a note, especially to anyone who you know is likely to not have good security tech, and recommend they get some.

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**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/10 "2006-06-07T03:11:25Z")

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An Email viral ad campaign?

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**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/11 "2006-06-07T03:51:54Z")

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Funny but I just got one about 3 minutes ago in my Gmail account.

Subject was 557 body was 959

It was sent to my primary address which autofowards to my Gmail account

Headers below (mangled to hide primary and gmail address)

X-Gmail-Received: 4b8d7ed962f2e60ccdf26671d54e3417de033cfe  
Delivered-To: \<my gmail address here\>  
Received: by 10.70.6.18 with SMTP id 18cs191166wxf;  
Tue, 6 Jun 2006 19:55:40 -0700 (PDT)  
Received: by 10.36.250.30 with SMTP id x30mr78191nzh;  
Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:53:54 -0700 (PDT)  
Return-Path: \<my real address here\>  
Received: from [spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com](http://spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com) ([spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com](http://spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com) [205.158.62.206])  
by [mx.gmail.com](http://mx.gmail.com) with ESMTP id 38si196822nzf.2006.06.06.19.53.52;  
Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:53:54 -0700 (PDT)  
Received-SPF: pass ([gmail.com](http://gmail.com): domain of \<real address\> designates 205.158.62.206 as permitted sender)  
Received: from [EM219.com](http://EM219.com) ([em-II-113-24.power.nstu.ru](http://em-II-113-24.power.nstu.ru) [217.71.133.216])  
by [spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com](http://spf6-2.us4.outblaze.com) (Postfix) with SMTP id 3A845C8A0EA  
for \<(real address)\>; Wed, 7 Jun 2006 02:53:44 +0000 (GMT)  
X-AntiVirus: Checked by Dr.Web [version: 4.32a, engine: 4.32a, virus records: 66537, updated: 28.02.2005]  
Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:43:08 +0600  
To: “Emanuel” \<(real address)\>  
From: “Emanuel” \<(real address)\>  
Subject: 557  
Message-ID: \<[yjxxnqehxvtezzsweab@levy.net](mailto:yjxxnqehxvtezzsweab@levy.net)\>  
MIME-Version: 1.0  
Content-Type: text/html; charset=“us-ascii”  
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

\<html\>\<body\>  
969

\<br\>  
\</body\>\</html\>

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-why-am-i-spamming-myself/359480/12 "2006-06-08T00:21:21Z")

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> [@Gfactor](#):
>
> Did you see _Fight Club_? It’s either that, or what **Shagnasty** said.

No, I have seen the _Fight Club_. But I might be tempted to send emails under a different name, if I knew how.